Man of Science, Woman of Faith
by Olivia Dunham
Summary: Megan Weston grew up on the Island. Most have never dreamed of what she's seen. Being an Other isn't all about fancy book clubs, and she knows it.


It took everything in her power to keep her hands from shaking as she pressed her fingertips together, staring down at the floor for a moment, dark hair hanging about her face. This wasn't happening. The island had a cruel sense of humor, but this – this was something she never dreamed would happen. No one was supposed to get sick on the island.

But apparently Benjamin Linus had.

She looked back up at the x-rays that had been hanging from a lamp, a tumor obviously visible at the base of his spine. He wasn't home yet – she'd taken the x-rays from Juliet and brought them in to look at them, and had promptly sat down in Ben's favorite arm chair, and hadn't moved since. She stared, transfixed on the spot on the carpet even when she heard the front door creak open.

"Megan, what -?" He began, but stopped, noticing her distress. Megan Weston had never cried, but she was so very close to it at that point. She didn't say anything, but knew he had spotted the x-rays. There was a soft thud as he dropped his messenger bag to the ground near the door and took a tender step forward.

"You have a tumor. On your L4 vertebrae." She said, managing to steady her voice long enough to speak.

There was silence in the room for a moment as Ben stepped forward, plucking one of the x-rays off the lamp and holding it up higher to get a better look. Megan finally looked up, watching him.

"You could die, Ben."

"I'm well aware I could."

"You said Jacob promised no one would ever get sick here. Most of all you!"

Ben met her gaze for a moment before her looked away, grabbing the second x-ray and tossing them on the counter, where they merely looked like sheets of black film.

"Jacob promised me a lot of things, Megan. Some of them are true, some are not." He said in the usual calm tone he held, acting as if nothing at all was wrong.

"We'll take you the temple. They can heal you there." She told him and swept to her feet. "Richard will -."

"No."

Megan blinked at him.

"What?" She asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I said no." He repeated, not taking his eyes off her for a moment. "Richard has other things to worry about. I'll be fine – we just need a surgeon."

"The only one qualified is Juliet, and she's a fertility doctor. Not a spinal surgeon!"

"She'll have to do."

Megan had to refuse the urge to slap him like she had done many times before. He was much calmer than she would have been, and she had to give him credit, but he was _dying_.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

Without betraying any emotion on her face, she turned abruptly and left the room, making sure to slam the front door behind her as she stalked across the green of the Barracks, clearly angry. Everyone knew when Megan was angry, you didn't mess with her, so she was left alone as she walked down the path that led toward the docks.

However, her goal was not the docks.

She took a sharp right off the path nearly halfway to the docks, brushing foliage and greenery out of her way as she trudged through the underbrush, ducking branches and ferns that stretched toward her. She was heading toward the deeper part of the jungle, anger still rolling off her in waves.

How could Ben not care that he was dying? At least, he seemed not to care. And that's what irked her. She'd know Ben for years now, and he had always been relaxed about death, but now . . . . now it was him dying, and not someone else.

"I'm going to kill him myself." She muttered to herself, but halted suddenly when she heard a twig snap to her left. Her head whipped around – whoever it was trying to creep up on her, they weren't being very sneaky. Twigs and branches snapped and crackled, and there was the minor sound of a struggle.

Richard emerged into the small area where Megan now stood, alert, dragging a struggling, very unhappy looking Alex behind him.

"Lose something?" Richard offered with a smile, letting go of Alex's arm and nudging her toward Megan, who instantly held a stern motherly look. Alex looked at the ground, sighing heavily.

"Where have you been?"

"Out." She muttered in response.

"Alex, look at me when I'm speaking to you."

The girl grudgingly looked up, meeting Megan's gaze. They stared at each other for a moment before Megan sighed.

"Go straight back to camp, and don't stop for anything, and I won't tell your father you've been sneaking out to see Karl again." She said and Alex nodded, heading back the direction Megan had come from. She watched the girl disappear, shaking her head.

Richard chuckled, suddenly beside her.

"I do believe you're getting soft in your older years, Megan." He commented and she threw a glare at him.

"You'd know all about the older years, wouldn't you?"

She gave him a knowing look, which he ignored.

"I remember a time when you would have giving Ben a run for his money yelling at her." He said. Megan shrugged.

"She's a teenager now – yelling doesn't do much good. You'd know all about that too, considering you put up with me." She said and began to walk again. Richard fell into step beside her, and for a moment, neither said anything.

"Something's bothering you." Richard broke the silence a few moments later. Megan didn't reply for a moment, letting the only sound be the snapping of twigs and crunch of leaves under their feet. Should she tell Richard? Ben had said no – but that had been to letting the island heal him, right?

"Ben's sick." She said finally, glancing sideways at him, noticing the frown that briefly graced his ageless face.

"Sick?"

She nodded, hair falling to hang in her face. Normally she would tell Richard everything, but for once in her life, she almost didn't want to tell him.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Tell him I said get well soon." Richard said suddenly. Megan wondered briefly if he could sense her internal debate about whether or not to tell Richard or not, but nodded once.

"I'll tell him."

_If he survives._

When they reached a clearing, Richard suddenly stopped. Megan walked a few more paces and stopped herself, looking back at him.

"What?"

He didn't reply, but instead turned his gaze to look up at the sky that was visible through the clearing of trees. Megan followed his gaze as the ground seemed to shake beneath her – for a moment she thought it was an earthquake, until she saw the plane streak across the sky, break in half, and fall in two pieces toward the ground.

Well, that wasn't good.

Megan exchanged a glance with Richard.

"I've got to get back to camp." Richard said and she nodded, watching him disappear through the trees, knowing she herself had better get back to the Barracks.

She ran through the trees, back the way she came, ducking and dodging the underbrush with practiced ease. Never in her life had she seen something like that – planes weren't supposed to crash on the island. Hell, they hardly ever flew over it.

When she reached the Barracks, they were a flurry of confusion and activity, people running from house to house. Ben was talking to Juliet not far away from the tree-line – Megan's anger flared up inside her again so she pressed on, jogging the rest of the way over toward Harper's house, determined to figure out just what the hell happened.

**. . .**

"_The journey can be a little . . . disorienting." _

_Megan blinked up at her parents, then at the man speaking to them as they stood on the submarine. It was like a metal death trap to her, closing in from every direction. They weren't the only ones either – some people had already drank the orange juice with whatever was in it, and had passed out, and were being carried to the beds along the back of the submarine. _

"_Do I have to?" She made a face of distaste as she looked up at the two adults now standing before her – her mother had already drained her glass, and was being hefted into one of the beds. _

"_Go on Megan." Peter Weston told his eight-year-old daughter, ruffling her auburn curls that had been tied back into a pretty bow that morning. She sighed heavily, watching her father take the juice. Another man came by and caught him as he fell, carrying him back toward the beds. Megan was the only one left now. _

"_Go ahead. I promise you'll be fine." Richard Alpert assured her, flashing a brief smile. Megan looked at him, and then the drink._

"_Okay."_

_She carefully drained the smaller amount that was in her own glass, and instantly felt tired. Her plastic glass clattered to the floor and Richard caught her tiny form as it fell._

"_Sleep tight." He whispered to her as her eyelids fluttered closed._

**. . .**

Three days, and Ethan and Goodwin had returned with lists.

In those three days, Megan had hardly left her house. The first day she'd cleaned the entire thing from top to bottom, still too upset to really even do anything that day. Her mind was still trying to process how the hell a _plane had crashed_ on their island. It was unnerving.

Things were starting to fall to pieces.

She'd seen the island in several different stages. Its struggles when the DHARMA people were hear, the prime when she and the others had taken over and killed everyone, and now – when everything was starting to crumble. People weren't supposed to get sick. Pregnant women shouldn't be dying. A plane shouldn't have crashed on the island.

But it all had happened.

And there was a spinal surgeon on the plane.

When she'd seen his name – _Jack Shephard_ – on the list, and the words 'spinal surgeon' written next to it in bold letters, Megan had almost jumped for joy. Ethan looked at her curiously, but she ignored him. There was even a pregnant woman on the plane. Maybe the plane had been destined to crash, and it was going to save them.

"I'll be back. I have to show this to Ben." She announced to Ethan, who nodded. Clutching the paper like a lifeline, she headed up to Ben's house. Not bothering to knock – neither of them did anymore – she entered, shutting the door silently behind her. There was no sign of Ben – naturally. But she knew he wasn't out.

Following the hall, she peered into his study, where she spotted him at his desk, writing on something rather intently, his glasses perched on the edge of his nose. Relaxing a bit, she rapped on the wooden doorframe with her knuckles a few times.

"Can I come in?"

"You don't have to ask. And it seems you already are in." He replied, not looking up. Megan glanced around the room as she sat down in one of the chairs next to his desk – she'd spent a lot of time in this room, mostly because it was where Ben happened to be when she needed to speak with him. Books were crammed in every shelf and top of table available that he had collected over the years, and various papers littered the tables, desk, and floor. Some looked to be as old as Dharma, with yellowed paper and fading lettering.

"Ben, Ethan and Goodwin came back with the lists." She said slowly.

"Did they?" Again, he didn't look up, focused on his tiny handwriting scrawling across the page.

"There's a pregnant woman on the plane. And a spinal surgeon."

His pen hovered, stopping halfway through writing a word. He finally looked up, his gaze evenly meeting hers. For a split second, Megan thought he almost looked angry.

"Well, then I guess we better form a plan."

**. . .**

_Megan shielded her eyes as she took the hand of the man helping people out of the sub, stepping down onto the wooden dock. Blinking in the sudden light, she looked up in front of her at the island. _

_It was beautiful, green, and lush, and just like she'd imagined when her parents had told her. She turned – crystal waters expanded as far as the eye could see._

"_Come on Megan!" Her mother called and she hurried to catch up with her parents. A lei was tossed around her neck as she glanced around – there weren't a lot of kids her age here. She'd been afraid of that._

"_Hi!"_

_She turned. A young girl with freckles and red hair was flashing a brilliant smile at her. She looked to be Megan's age._

"_Hi." Megan extended a hand, like her mother had taught her to greet people. "I'm Megan."_

"_Welcome to Dharma. I'm Annie."_

**. . .**

_So I hope you enjoyed! This is kind of a test chapter, to see how people will react. Please review!_


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